This application is a continuation of Ser. No. 09/920,401 filed Aug. 2, 2001 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,419,161, issued Jul. 16, 2002, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/786,547 filed Jan. 21, 1997 now abandoned, which claims priority to French application Ser. No. 96 00678, filed in France on Jan. 22, 1996.
The present invention relates to a method of processing coded information stored on an integrated circuit card.
It also relates to a system for implementing such a method.
The present invention finds application in the field of the processing coded integrated circuit cards that can be processed in card readers at a plurality of different locations. Each card reader is electrically coupled to a processor containing an algorithm that extracts information from one or more data files on the integrated circuit file, processes the data, and updates the data files based on prior uses of the integrated circuit card.
Thus, with the invention, it is possible to alter an operation on the basis of previous operations performed using the integrated circuit card.
A method is already known which enables specific benefits to be granted depending on the behavioral attitude of customers, and which consists essentially in sending a discount coupon through the post, shortly after the operation initiating purchase or payment by the holder.
Such a method has drawbacks. In fact it generates considerable delays and is of limited reliability (loss of coupons, change of address).
One of the technical problems solved by the invention consists in eliminating these considerable delays, by granting a benefit to the customer at the actual time of payment by the latter or more generally of the operation initiating the benefit.
According to the invention, the merchant will thus be able to recognize a customer on the basis of the frequency with which he calls in and of the size of his spending. It will then be possible to grant him a specified definite benefit automatically and instantaneously.
For this purpose the invention proposes in particular a method of processing coded information during a purchase or payment operation by a customer, holder of a card with a chip, at a merchant, in which the contents of the memory of the chip card are read and a coupon is or is not printed on the basis of the information arising from the contents of said memory, characterized in that, with the memory of the chip card including a first identification file, termed the Member file, identifying the card-holding customer, a second accounting file, termed the Points file, and a third file, termed the Behavior file, relating to the behavior of the card holder towards the merchant or merchants, a specified algorithmic processing is performed dependent, on the one hand, on the date of the operation and, on the other hand, on the information contained in said files, including the Behavior file, then data is written to the Points file, new information is written to the Behavior file, and said coupon is or is not printed on the basis of the result of said algorithmic processing.
Advantageous embodiments resort moreover to one and/or other of the following provisions:
the algorithmic processing includes a step of incrementing or decrementing the points file by a pre-specified number of points;
the coupon is only printed if the number of points contained in the Points file is greater than a specified value;
the coupon is only printed and/or the Points file is only incremented or decremented if the Member file corresponds to specified criteria;
the Points file is incremented more or less depending on the amount of the purchase or payment operation;
the Points file is incremented more or less depending on frequency and/or on the nature of first, second or xth visit by the card holder over a period of time of specified duration;
information corresponding to the operation is entered into a memory of a payment terminal located on the premises of said merchant, said entered information is compared with information stored in storage means and relating to pre-specified series of operations, and the results of these comparisons are processed in order to print a coupon and/or write to the Points file.
It is thus possible to undertake promotional operations which are limited in time and pertain to a collection of merchants belonging to the same network.
access to the files is enciphered through a so-called triple DES (Data Encryption Standard) encryption procedure.
The invention also proposes a device for processing coded information, during a purchase or payment operation by a user, holder of a card with a chip, comprising means for reading coded data from the memory of the chip card, computation means and means of printing a coupon, characterized in that, with the memory of the chip card including a first identification file, termed the Member file, identifying the card-holding customer, a second accounting file, termed the Points file, and a third file, termed the Behavior file, relating to the behavior of the card holder towards the merchant or merchants, the computation means include means of specified algorithmic processing dependent, on the one hand, on the date of the operation and, on the other hand, on the information contained in said files, including the Behavior file, and in that the device includes means for writing new information to the Points file and to the Behavior file on the basis of said specified algorithmic processing, the means of printing a coupon being configured so as to print or not print said coupon on the basis of the information arising from the contents of said files and from said algorithmic processing.
Advantageously, the device moreover includes:
means of entering data corresponding to said operation into a memory for intermediate storage and display of data,
means of storing coded information relating to one or more operations,
means of comparing between the data entered into said intermediate memory and information stored in said information storage means,
means of processing the results of these comparisons,
and means configured so as automatically to print or not print the coupon on the basis of the information arising from the contents of the memory of the chip card, and controlled by said means of processing said results.
The invention will be better understood on reading the description which follows of a particular embodiment given by way of non-limiting example.